Page:Grigory Zinoviev - Twelve Days in Germany (1921).pdf/8

 same steamer five Soviet diplomatic couriers on their way to Germany, Czecho-Slovakia and Austria. We Russians thus numbered eight men in all. There were at least forty spies, an average of five to each Communist! There were English, French, German, Lettish, Esthonian, Austrian, Czecho-Slovak, and many others. It was, so to say, a veritable international of spies. One could hardly show his nose on deck without being surrounded on all sides by these honourable gentlemen. All sorts and conditions of people were present there. Well-dressed ladies, English dandies, gentlemen dressed up as "workmen," etc. We did not derive the least pleasure in meeting these gentlemen, whose very faces invited insults, and were in no way pleasant to contemplate. We could hardly move a step without meeting them. When not engaged in other occupations they played at cards, and as usual quarrelled amongst themselves. Since spying on us could not occupy the whole of their spare time, they were engaged in spying upon each other. This was extremely funny.

Under this trusty escort we arrived at Stettin after two-and-a-half days.

In Stettin we were met by the German comrades: the president of the Sailors' Union, a Communist-Anarchist, member of the German Communist Party, and Comrade Kurt Geher, one of the best known leaders of the Left Wing of the Independent Party. The first question we put to Comrade Kurt Geher was: who is in the majority at the congress; we or they, the "left" or the "right" Comarde Geher reassured us that our faction was as firm as a rock. This news immediately put us in a most cheerful mood. The Stettin workmen and sailors had been informed of our arrival. They all wanted to take part in the welcome. The leading comrades, however, dissuaded them, considering quite rightly that they should not from the very first embarrass our stay in Germany. Next to the sailors, who came to meet us, stood some well-fed, immaculately-dressed bourgeois. Our comrades told us: these are the leaders of the so-called "Orgesh" organisation (a White Guard organisation led by reactionary Generals and officers, which in some parts of Germany terrorises the whole population. The organiser of this gang is Colonel Escherich. Hence